Is Bell Mobility's Professional Management Program closing?

Update: Albert Lee, a public relations staffer with Bell, released this rather cagey statement to the Canadian Press earlier this afternoon: "Bell offers a variety of ways for students, graduates and other young professionals to start their careers with us. The Professional Management Program was completed last April and is no longer available, but anyone looking to join Bell should visit our career website at http://jobs.bce.ca to review the options." The PMP is finished.

Trouble seems to be brewing within Bell Mobility's much derided Professional Management Program ("PMP"). I've previously covered the PMP, so take a look at this article if you want the sorrid backstory. I can confirm that that the PMP is not accepting new unpaid interns and the recruitment website is down. That being said, there still seems to be numerous unpaid interns staffing the PMP, so the overall status of the program isn't exactly clear. 

The tenuous status of the PMP appears to be related to ongoing challenges within the regulatory sphere and being featured in a New York Times article. The PMP is currently the subject of litigation under the Canada Labour Code and there's proposed legislation from the NDP that would put strict controls on unpaid internships at federally-regulated employers. Both of these challenges don't bode particularly well for the future of the PMP.

The PMP was started by Henry Mar, a senior director at Bell Mobility, a number of years ago and has historically employed hundreds of unpaid interns at Bell Mobility's Mississauga offices. The operations of the PMP has been the focus of investigations by CBC's The National and the Toronto Star. Essentially, the issue boils down to why Bell Mobility refuses to pay wages to hundreds of young people who are doing highly beneficial work for the corporation. I might add that BCE Inc., Bell Mobility's parent company, is posting rather hefty profits these days and the continuing refusal to pay wages seems odd.

If there are anymore developments in this ongoing saga I will pass them along, but here's hoping that one of the worst offenders in the unpaid internship racket is changing their ways. Finally, here's a video where a former PMP intern discusses what she was asked to do at Bell Mobility.